@Flamelord@Lugubrious@VitaVitaAR@Invisible Man

Ed just joined the fight and before he knew it it was over and during the fight a new group of people joined in. He didn't know where to begin as he got off of the pepper tail. Ripping off a piece of food and eating it as he considered his next move. Not wanting to risk injury or death with pepper face or spear girl he turned and mad his way over to Filia and Souji to introduce himself. "Hi, my name is Edward." The hair on this girl made Ed shiver. That thing was using that poor girl and she might not even have any idea about it. He would just have to find a way to help her in the future.

As soon as Akagi was done eating his fill of bacon, he approached the others.

"So... what's this contest then? Just eat a bunch of food and then hold it in?" Nobuo said. He had the feeling like he'll probably lose. Sadly, he was not yellow. Otherwise it would have been destined for him to win if he were to spot some curry.

"Don't mind if I do!" Nobuo received a bag of sweets from Chun-Li. At least he'll have that distract him while he figures out the best way to endure this challenge.

The Overlord only managed to acquire ten slaves out of the entire crowd! Only ten... The Overlord didn't expect the collaborating people to realize that the giant metal man was targeting random people, they seemed to acknowledge that they could also be victims to the Overlord's horrible methods to acquire slaves. So, most of the people scattered off screaming for their pathetic lives while some decided to stay and fight for their mind-controlled friends. They were the pile of smashed bodies littered around the crushed street of cookies, but their meaty carcasses were going to be put to good use as Overlord likes to control all sources of life, including these rather strange animals.

The Overlord used his magic to cook the bodies at the right temperature, searing the meat that not many carnivorous animals could ignore. Most of them were scavengers, like the life-savers vultures or the sugar cubed ants, a mere glance from the Overlord scared them off, but one animal seemed to appear from the shady alleyway. The structure seemed to be a bear walking upon its four legs although in the sunlight... It was a red gummy bear. The Overlord was rather confused for its physiology, being made of gummy candy couldn't be too good for the body, but it still seemed to retain most of the instincts that come with a bear. It greedily ate at the meat, snapping its jaws onto the savory cooked flesh, and the Overlord decided that would be his pet for the time being.

He walked over to the bear, the creature still gnashing onto the bodies of the dead before looking up towards the Overlord with its teeth snarled, he wondered if the gummy bear was originally red. Though, with the thought put aside, the Overlord merely had to do one thing, glare at it. All small minded evil beings all fell beneath the Overlord's watch, almost everything evil in his universe was controlled by him, so this universe seemed no different... Except for that DIO guy... He didn't know what kind of creature that things was. So, with ease, the Overlord conquered his first animal with his intimidating force, not even animals could ignore the pure evilness coming out of him!

The Overlord nodded towards the bear to continue eating after a few seconds of establishing who was the boss, and it did so with a vicious force. He turned away to view the construction of his new throne upon the middle of the street, the slaves seemed to be making good work, using the graham crackers for a nice base structure with black licorice being layered upon the base. It was coming nicely, his slaves working tirelessly for him, throne was being constructed, and a giant red gummy bear being his new attack bear. Things were getting pretty nice.




Krieg continued to enjoy the sensation of the burning pepper juice running across his skin, although it wasn't just the same rather than being set on fire! The Psycho continued to chuckle idly, his eyes bloodshot red dilated while he ignored mostly everything around him. The Voice was just watching things unfold before him, people seemed to be talking to each other, proud that they managed to take down such a enormous beast, but Krieg has taken down bigger and badder monsters by himself. The group of strangers made the Voice chuckle to himself, the scene was similar to newbies trying to search for the vault, although none of them looked like they could punch your head off with one strike, though this Samson guy could look like he could bite off your head with one motion. He continued to watch until some girl spoke to him, she was being rather rude, but Krieg most likely deserved a lot worse than rude manners. Krieg's conscious sighed to himself, stuck inside of the head of a Psycho with no one to talk with can get slightly frustrating. "I think he has been filling up on bacon and splintered wood, but his iron gut could probably handle more food."

'I'm not full yet!" Krieg suddenly screamed, not to anyone in particular.

"Man, I know this guy too well." The Voice chuckled to himself once again, betting on what actions he would take was kind of his past time. "And... He should jump into the hole... right... about... now." Right on queue, Krieg jumped into the hole that he had created in the Tacodile, squeezing himself into the watery lettuce and lukewarm ground beef.

"I ordered a lead salad!" Krieg said, his voice being muffled by the vast amount of food that he was currently being enveloped by.

Kyouko felt her jaw hang open a little bit as the man in the mask dove inside the creature and began to eat it. For a few moments she wasn't sure how to react. Then, gritting her teeth, she raised her spear at his head, which was the only thing visible from inside the taco monster, leveling the tip at him.

"You... better eat all of that!" she snapped, before turning away. There wasn't even anything she could really do about it! The thing did get some hair in it, but the head was fine, wasn't it? But now that guy had jumped into it, and even Kyouko wasn't going to eat food that some dirty psycho jumped inside of. But if he, after all that, didn't even try to eat it all... Well, needless to say, the redheaded magical girl was going to be ticked. Angrily, she snatched her bag of chips up and shoved one in her mouth, chewing in the most furious manner possible. And she was the one who'd killed it, even...

"What kind of crap is that?" Kyouko complained, "I was the one who killed it, and he's gonna eat it?! Tch, Mami wouldn't pull this shit. I wouldn't pull this shit! If you're leavin' some food around that's different..."

Indeed, someone just leaving food around was asking for Kyouko to steal it. And if someone left some shadow cubes around... well, leaving them too long would spawn more demons, now, wouldn't it? Someone had to take them, and Kyouko felt it was best if it was her.

But this was just garbage!

Damian repressed the urge to sigh in frustration as the weird woman had the nerve or lack of brain cells to decide that he had somehow given her an open invitation to travel along with him despite his own admission that he already had no idea where they were. Worse yet, she was apparently foolish enough to suggest peaceful negotiating. With what was likely a being that was completely insane by all the boundaries and standards of their own realities! Clearly there was something seriously wrong in her head that the Boy Wonder was less than equipped or willing to deal with if that was her opinion. Still, she seemed to know how to use that rifle she was carrying, so perhaps she would not be a complete burden after all...

"I'm fairly certain that once we track them down I'll do much more than 'punch them in the dick' metaphorically or otherwise-" He paused for a moment as if struck by inspiration "-though admittedly that may prove to be a good place to start. But if you're going to insist on coming along then let's at least not waste any more time and start tracking leads. You can fly so at least be useful and go up higher than I can to look for others who might know more than us." He gestured up dismissively and then got to work.

Specifically Damian pulled a grappling hook pistol from his utility belt and fired it so that the hook and cables latched onto a nearby tree-branch before yanking him up into the leafy, snack-filled canopy. Once he hit the first branch Damian grabbed onto it and swung himself to a slightly higher one, then jumped further up off of that one and so on, occasionally switching trees and dodging what appeared to be meat hanging like fruit until his head poked up over the treetops. From there he began scanning through his mask's different visual modes looking for signs of not just other intelligent beings but any traces of strange energy that might indicate the kind of being he was hunting. Without the Bat-Computer it would be impossible to really analyze such signals but he hadn't considered how cut off he really was until he began looking regardless.

He did in fact find some very strange energy signatures. Too many in fact, to the point where without the computer to sort it out he couldn't quite visually distinguish what all of them were. This close it was at least obvious that floating woman seemed to have some sort of solar radiation effect around her he'd never seen before, maybe she was some sort of alternate universe Kryptonian. More importantly it seemed like two human-looking figures were sitting in one of the bento trees further off and lower down. Damian waved for long enough to try and get Jade's attention, then gestured in the direction of the two and took off. Without bothering to wait and see if Jade would catch up he started leaping from branch to branch and occasionally using a grapple-line to swing.

As he came closer to the occupied bento tree he saw the pair more clearly, dressed in a fashion that seemed part modern and part traditional Asian clothing. Not wanting to take any chances by nature but obviously needing to introduce himself in the proper fashion for one of Batman's proteges, Damian leaped from the highest branch of his own tree and applied the electric-pulse from his gauntlets to his cape so that it snapped out in a bird-wing shape, letting him glide silently above the top of the tree. When he reached a position that was roughly above and behind the two he folded the glider cape and dropped down in a dive, purposefully hooking his feet on a smaller branch so he would drop down hanging upside down directly behind and above the two of them. He hoped it would be a bizarre, unexpected and disconcerting entrance and would put him in a position to take the two of them out quickly if he had to.

"So, I want some answers. Are you two working with the being that kidnapped me and brought me here or not?"

He tried to imitate Batman's patented grim, intimidating scowl but didn't quite realize the full extent of differences that occurred on a face as small and young as his or when he was upside down.

Still mildly weirded out that a flying purple pastel pony was speaking so eloquently, the boy just smiled and nodded as Twilight rambled on about things that he didn't know or get, for once not being able to stick his foot in his mouth since this was a bit out there even for him. When people chimed in about the martial arts, the boy found something he could latch onto, since it was his life and all. Though Jax commenting about how his parents were proud of him made him feel a mixed bag of thoughts considering WHO his parents were. This too he remained quiet about, since he'd rather keep the old shame of his parents' expectations to himself. His master... well, that was his dad and various other people he cribbed his moves from. How to word it... "Ehhhh, my master is anyone or anything I can learn from. Anything Goes is a style that emphasizes change and adaption, so anything that can make it stronger will be added. It's designed to be able to overcome any challenge much like water flowing around rocks or reeds bending in the wind."

This Ranma said with pride, since even though the other practicioners of the style weren't all that great, he himself was proud of his hard earned skills. That and he didn't want to say his teacher was a lazy glutton of a father or a lecherous tiny old man that stole women's underwear. Mentally congratulating himself on not losing any face, a kid dressed up like one of those foreign superheroes popped up from a higher branch in a manner that reminded Ranma of himself, asking about being kidnapped and whatnot. If it weren't for the fact that he himself randomly did this to other people and regularly had to contend with people popping literally out of nowhere to threaten him with extreme violence, he would have been surprised. Instead, he just simply cocked his head to one side and gave a pretty calm response. "Nah, we ain't who yer looking for. That'd be the Viewer, who seems to be a giant jackass with too much power and time. Me, I'm just gonna play along with his games and survive until the end of the thirty days and then sock the bastard in the face when he comes out to take us home. Also, nice effort on trying to be intimidating. Four outta ten. Anyways, we're still trying to figure out what to do the first day besides look around and eat stuff-"

It was at this moment that the skies filled up with various insect shapes in the distance, the majority swarming about a distant point in the City, congregating about what looks like a giant cornucopia filled with all manners of similarly scaled up ingredients. Unlike the appealing foodscape, these beasts seemed to be quite a bit more unappealing in appearance. A couple of the things however seemed to be going after easier prey, swooping down into the distance and attacking people attracted to the generous amounts of foodstuffs. Seeing a couple headed towards Mahora and a few others flying to another point (Roanapur) in a small flock, the pigtailed boy's easygoing face turned a bit more serious. "Ah, there we go. No free meal, huh? We only get to eat if we can live..." Cracking his knuckles simply by flexing his hands, Ranma entered a battle state. "Well, at least we got our exercise." As ever, the boy had to quip even in a life or death situation.

"Mahora has a special barrier spell set over its ground so most the things won't be able to get in." Chao spoke into a microphone, her young voice loudly giving vital information to the people in Mahora. "Still, be careful. There's gaps in the system so people might have to either defend themselves or run and hide from the aggressive creatures." That done with, the Chinese student turned to those closest to her with a smiling face that seemed to be all but full of ill intentions towards the incoming things. Indeed, that seemed to be the case considering the fact that most of the thing seemed to be electrocuted and treated as insects by the barrier which acted as a giant bug zapper, as well as the multitude of turrets that swiveled out from hiding from various buildings to shoot down the interlopers with what looked like lasers, vaporizing holes in abruptly dead enemies.

"Also, killing them will gain you Contribution Points, as well as completing certain hidden Objectives such as saving civilians, capturing key targets, and bringing down certain enemies. You can then use these Points to exchange them for various things from a catalogue at the end of the day. My guess is that today is a Survival Challenge and that waves of enemies will descend upon the City to purge its inhabitants." The smile turned even more chill, as cold as permafrost."What horrible taste the Viewer has..." Even as she said this, about a dozen of the chimeric beasts managed to worm their way in a gap and ran about the campus, their insect-like bodies homing in on the Players.

Over in Roanapur, the already rather hellish port was besieged by all manners of abominations, some from the skies, others from the land and sea. All were about the size of a grown man or larger and had parts that could be described as predatory such as sharp teeth and claws designed to rend meat from bone. Others had thick armor, acidic saliva, or poisonous parts attached all about their body. Thankfully their intelligence wasn't all that good and they weren't too hard to kill judging by the scattered corpses of the things filled with lead and bullets that were much bigger than 9mm. Those that weren't armed enough or unlucky enough to be ambushed by the things simply became hunks of gristle and gore that were beset upon by the ravenous animals that ignored the foodscape and went after human flesh.

Hibiki attacked her bento with a ferocity that would seem almost inhuman if not for one of the people that happened to be in the tree right above her head, even with other people showing up and Damian literally dropping in. Nothing had been addressed to her and as such filling her stomach took precedence over getting involved in the conversations, especially as this was a surprisingly delicious lunch for something grown from the tree--particularly the rice, though that was probably just her biases.

The first inkling that this wasn't just a dream came when the insectoid shapes came into view. Not because dreaming of large amounts of monsters was unlikely for the schoolgirl, but rather because they were the wrong type; if any hordes were going to turn her dreams into something more nightmarish, it would be the Noise.

Listening to Ranma, along with the Chinese girl, gave Hibiki some idea of what was going on--if not a good one, and still not fully convinced that this wasn't a dream. But Hibiki was still Hibiki and with civilians in danger, along with monsters to hold off, she knew exactly what she had to do.

The short phrase the girl sung was nothing but gibberish, except for the name 'Gungnir', yet it was enough to initiate a bright transformation that replaced her uniform with something far more athletic, and with rather bulky add-ons to her limbs. And, for some reason, headphones. Unfortunately, for anyone in the area that might have a dislike of j-pop, she was still singing, music and all.

That was when the magical girl took off towards the encroaching insects, taking only a few steps before leaping the rest of the way. Whilst in flight, the springs on one arm drew back as she prepared her own punch. Hibiki's 'landing' only came after slamming her fist into one of the insects, followed by the piston releasing to amplify the impact immensely. Unfortunately, whilst the punch was more than capable of taking out one enemy, it couldn't do anything to stop the rest from surging onwards, even as she spun around to roundhouse the nearest.

Chun-Li, Mahora

"Want me to prove it?" Chun-Li grinned at Jax when he questioned her title of strongest woman in the world as she passed out various cookies. "I see why you call it Anything Goes then if it's designed to adapt and change depending on what is useful."

"That and it certainly sounds like a serious martial art compared to the ones you've mentioned so far," Chun-Li added, having some respect for the Japanese boy's skill in martial arts. Given how Ranma described his style, it will be an unpredictable one to fight and depending on how skilled a martial artist he is, he'll try to adapt to her moves if they were to spar. She still wanted a friendly spar with both Ranma and Jax, though. When a young kid dressed as some sort of superhero hung upside down behind them and asked them questions and Ranma answered the boy, Chun-Li glanced at the kid though she wasn't that surprised by his sudden appearance either.

"Ranma's right," Chun-Li explained. "We'd love to beat up the Viewer right now, but apparently, he won't show up to get his beat down until a month from now."

"Cookie?" Chun-Li offered Robin a cookie from her bag when suddenly, locusts attacked the City, not only eating the food but also attacking the people! This would not do at all. Chun-Li had to do something about it so she finished the last of her bento and jumped out of the tree to the ground. She was already in Interpol Agent mode now. She had to be in the people outside Mahora were to survive. It was then that Chao gave them very useful information.

"If what Chao says is true, there will be gaps within the barrier spell of this place, so we need to find them, grab anyone who's defenseless and pull them inside the barrier," Chun-Li detailed her plan to help the people getting attacked by the locusts. "We also need to kill the locusts already inside and keep more from coming in."

Chun-Li then got into a battle stance, looked for the closest locust, and sped towards it, aiming to jump on it and slam the creature into the ground with her powerful legs. The fact that her current ally against the locust appeared to derive power from J-Pop was something to ask about another time.

@Dblade26@Grey Star

---

Juri, Roanapur

"Right, you did. I didn't," Juri said to DIO. In the heat of the moment, the fact that DIO had introduced himself beforehand had slipped her mind. Juri had wondered what DIO met by bound together. She figured this meant working with him, but with his mention of servants, Juri had to wonder what exactly she was getting herself into. However, in the next moment, she was in DIO's arms half a block away. Juri was surprised at this but DIO soon set her down. When DIO explained what Stands were, he had Juri's undivided attention on the subject. When he explained the nature of his own Stand, Juri realized that his Stand was the reason why he seemingly could teleport. He wasn't teleporting... He was stopping time and then moving to a different location.

"Dangerous... You've only just met me," Juri smirked seductively at him again. "But then you could have killed me during the battle but didn't, especially with that Stand of yours."

"You let me live when you could've stopped time and killed me in an instant, so you deserve my trust... and my love," Juri made a circle along his chest, continuing to smirk. While her will was too powerful to fall under DIO's obedience from his presence, she still felt herself immensely attracted to the vampire all the same. He then asked if she could recover while on the move, she nodded and followed DIO wherever he may lead. "Yeah, I can."

@Lugubrious

Jax - Bento Tree

---

Jax was just about to congratulate the boy for managing to not only find his own fighting style but managing to copy others when he heard the announcement and saw the various mismatched creatures flying in. The Grandmaster was excited, he hadn't really had much of a battle ever since that Psycho tried to kill him and better yet- he had new friends this time! Jax cracked his neck as he stood up, Summoner's cup at his side. "You're right about the exercise part. I gotta admit kid, you surprised me with that mixed martial arts stuff- reminds me of when I was a kid. Looks like we got some stuff to do eh?" The Summoner's Cup Jax was holding with his right arm glistened in the sun, it's very pristine Silver showing a reflection of Ranma's face. The Grandmaster threw his box of bento back up into the tree he got it from and then looked back to Ranma. "These days you can't really be good unless you do learn some things from the pros now can ya? Jax asked the boy as he spun around his Cup Staff around in his right hand. "I've fought some really weird things in my day but these guys are taking the cake. Honestly whoever's in charge has either a wicked sense of humor or just really bad taste in monsters. So, what do you say we team up and see how many points we can get eh? Or would you and Li over here like to go solo?"

Just then Jax saw the creatures break through the portal, this didn't look good. Jax scratched his chin and then readied his staff, looking toward the sun his seven eyes glinted yellow. In Ionia Jax had spent most of his young days simply fighting his way through whatever obstacle may have plagued him and then it evolved into him fighting monsters in the vasts forests of the Ionian countryside. Giant Insects, Golems, Exotic Birds and even Vengeful Spirits who wanted him dead for some reason. It was all the same to the now hardened battle veteran, at one point he had been just a simple child who lived on the very plain streets of Ionia and now he was the freakin' Grandmaster- how could you not be proud of that. But cockiness is what the Grandmaster did not have, what he did have though: was confidence. Confidence won him his battles.

He turned back to Ranma, seemingly entranced by the monsters. He then watched as Li rushed into battle, crushing a locust with her mighty legs. "Seems like we're all in this together. I wonder, perhaps this place is bigger than we once thought? Well whatever. Teamwork leads to leeway and then leeway leads to improved teamwork, so let's go together eh?" Jax said as he looked at the fighter, ready for battle. He was just about to take another step forward when he heard singing.

Confused Jax turned to see a little girl singing what appeared to be a song in Ionian. Was she possibly? No. Everyone here is from a different world... So where's she from then? The girl then without missing a beat grew battle apendages and literally punch the crap out of one that approached her, he watched silentley as she roundhoused the next one. Then it finally hit Jax. Get going.

The Grandmaster ran forward calling back to his friends to follow as he made his way to the skirmish.

@GameGuruGG@Grey Star@Raineh Daze

There were a few more figures who had appeared, some she recognized from before the world became composed of food. Others, like the boy who had appeared from no-where, she did not. However, introductions were quickly cut short when a horde of ravening insectoid monsters suddenly descended from the sky. Well, to say the least, that was unexpected. The only thing that could possibly be more unexpected was when he new girl suddenly sang herself into a bodysuit with some level of armor, and proceeded to pummel her way through a pair of insects. After watching for a moment(after all, that was really cool), Kino decided there was no real question of the creatures' intent.

"That doesn't look too good, Kino," commented Hermes, "Maybe we should leave."

Kino shook her head. "They seem to be homing in on us, Hermes. I don't think that we'll be able to outrun them."

Therefore, there was only one possible response left.

Only those paying attention would be able to tell that Kino had drawn the pistol holstered on her back. It happened so quickly that it was difficult to tell. One moment, the dark-haired girl was reaching behind herself, the other, she had leveled the pistol up and-

Three gunshots rang out. At a speed so quick someone blinking may have missed it, the traveler had drawn one of her weapons and fired.

Three insects fell dead from the sky, crashing to the ground below.

A surly voice answered Souji's initial comment, with Samson twisting Filia's head around so that his pupil-devoid yellow eyes could bore into Souji's own, "I'm not just hair, ya pop tart! I'm a parasite. Ain'tcha ever seen one before? Hosts with parasites are summa the strongest things there are!" With some effort, Filia righted her head's orientation, rubbing her neck and smiling softly. "Oh, Samson likes to boast. I'm not that good. But I'm getting better!" Patiently she waited while he introduced herself, and afterward she gave a polite nod of her head before winking. "Nice to meet you, Souji. You're not really the fighting type, huh?" She cast a glance Edward's way, and felt a little bit of her good mood evaporate. Why did the alchemist stare at her with such concern? Was it because of Samson? Even if so, she didn't feel like asking.

The continued problem Kyouko was having with Krieg became even less relevant to Filia when she quite suddenly became aware of a persistent and rather intimidating hum off in the distance. Turning, she watched with no small amount of horror as an enormous horde of bugs circling a far-off structure divided itself into groups to fan out over the City. After the Tacodile, Filia didn't feel too much like fighting, and hoped that those worrisome clouds of insects didn't plan on heading her way. As the seconds trickled by, however, she grew closer and closer to realizing the naivety of those hopes. Clusters of ravenous, despicable arthropods were headed not only in the schoolgirl's general direction, but precisely toward her. "Uh oh."



An unidentifiable noise in the distance prompted DIO to look away from Juri, though he heard her loud and clear. Her flirtings did not go unnoticed, though by now enough of her personality was apparent to conclude that they were the expression of a sensual mind, and not evidence of some great love. From her repeated admission of his superiority in terms of combat, DIO knew that she feared him, and like many humans when confronted with him she felt joy rather than panic or a violent urge. This, along with lust, did not represent what humans typically thought of love. But so what? Barring some improbably incident. Juri would fight and live by his side now as long as he wished. DIO, though unbound by traditional feelings following his rejection of his humanity, felt a degree of responsibility, respect, and attraction toward Juri as well. This arrangement suited him just fine. "How flattering, that you should find me 'worthy'." He pointed with his thumb to the right side of an upcoming intersection. [color=yellow]"It's good that you'll be able to join me. Come then, I've heard something that may afford us more fun."[/color

The two progressed down the street and made a right, navigating the various edible formations interspersing the sidewalk. Before long, Juri's own senses could pick up the drone of wings and the sounds of destruction that had enticed DIO. Wondering idly what kind of obstacle might lie ahead, DIO made the turn from Positively 4th Street to Joppa Road with his new ally close behind and beheld down the avenue a couple of insects, easily as large as a fully-grown person and all a special kind of ugly. "None of these abominations could have come from natural design," reasoned DIO, "The Viewer must have sent them down to plague us." He watched as one particularly brutal specimen, a vile blend of beetle and wasp with what appeared to be crushing pincers on both ends, tore into a helpless civilian and began to devour its flesh. "That clinches it...sending down creatures to eat people when the people thought they'd be the ones eating. Just the kind of sadistic irony a reality-altering being might dish out." As he watched, stuck in a pose of impersonal contemplation, the monstrous bug spotted him and buzzed his way, its wings beating out a threatening, low-pitched hum as a small jackhammer might. Two of its closest friends followed suit, bearing down on the vampire with alarming speed and far more alarming appearances.

DIO snorted in derision and waited until the three happened to be in alignment. At that moment his pupils ripped apart and high-pressure jets of vampiric essence shot out in pink eye-beams, piercing the insects handily and obliterating their control centers. Three corpses, even more detestable in death, tumbled to the ground while DIO shielded his eyes from the beclouded sunlight in order to hasten their regeneration. Mere trifles," he yawned. "Still, if this is an official Challenge, I suppose I must win it. Kill the most bugs, I expect." Just down Joppa Road, another squad of bugs landed, all sporting glowing green sacs scattered across their bodies.

Well, this didn't look like New Meridian. Peacock was pretty sure there wasn't so much food growing everywhere, for one thing.

"I knew I should've taken that left turn at Little Innsmouth," she grumbled, taking a long drag from her cigar, seemingly unconcerned about what any onlookers would think about a 13 year old smoking. Even if there weren't any Dagonians around anymore, something still smelled fishy, and not just the circumstances of her suddenly being here in... Foodland or whatever. Literally, something smelled like fish, and it was probably that huge brown lake. And probably that girl nearby it, too.

"Hey, toots!" An oversized white glove poked Kido in the side, as the other firmly pinched Peacock's nose. "You mind explaining what's goin' on here? I'm missing Annie: Girl of the Stars for cryin' out loud!"

Well, something had probably explained what was going on, but... It just sounded too boring! Peacock couldn't focus her attention on something so dull.

@Green Rhapsody

Garie, Roanpur

The Autoscorer had proceeded along through Roanpur unmolested, with nothing in particular catching her eye. For someone used to Alchemy and fighting Relic Users, this sort of thing was beyond mundane, and Garie grinned to herself as she walked along. What they did was no concern of hers, unless she saw something funny or someone was stupid enough to try and attack her. Which would only end badly for them if they made the attempt. She wasn't like that teleporting guy, but she had her own strengths.

And, just as sadly, her peace was soon interrupted by noise from the sky. "Hm?" There was no amusement in her tone, and she frowned as she glanced up to see a horde of bugs, of all shapes and sizes, entering the city and diving down to attack the civilians. They were almost like Noise, if not even more useless.

That was what she considered as one dived at her, and a quick flourish brought a blue circle to life before an ice wall appeared, shuddering under the impact of the bug that slammed against it.

But it held, and she swung into motion as she danced to the side, letting another circle appear to send icicles shooting at the thing, ripping it up and killing it "Pathetic," she said to no one in particular, her hands resting on her hips. Yep, these things were definitely worse than Noise, so she probably couldn't expect a interesting or fun fight from them in any manner.

Then she shrugged. "Well, I guess I'll play along, for now." Anything to get closer to the Viewer running all of this, since it wasn't hard to tell who was responsible. So she went to work, letting the dance begin as she made her mark known, with pillars of water and storms of ice shards. These bugs wouldn't know what hit them.

---

Souji Mitsuka, Mahora

Continuing to ignore the weirdness of the guy full on jumping into the taco beast, Souji smiled as the blond guy who had used the sword before introduced himself as Edward. Well then, that was almost all of them. It was just a matter of prying a name from the redhead with the spear. Speaking of which, she currently seemed to be furious with what was going on with the taco beast, much to his confusion. Who could get that angry over food?

Then he mentally slapped himself, realizing his stupidity. It was just like how he reacted around twintails, only her secondary attribute appeared to be something food related. Well, he'd seen odder things amongst the Ultimagil, so he would just have to help her when the time came.

But his attention was drawn back as the hair-err, parasite, swiveled in place to talk to him. "Yeah," he replied with a nod. "I've just never met one that could talk before." And wasn't that the truth. Idly his mind wandered, wondering if it could make twintails and what that would do for her attribute strength, before simply imagining Filia in twintails.

A chuckle escaped as he rubbed the back of his head upon her question. "Something like that," he admitted. Red was more the fighting type than he was, even if they were technically the same person.

But conversation was interrupted by the sound of a droning in the air, and Souji joined with Filia in looking to the skies, to see the swarm of bugs headed in their direction. Well then, he wasn't going to say that it was a familiar sight but it was definitely worrying. There was no more time for hesitation, now was there?

"Sorry!" he said as he turned and took off running, putting on the appearance of simply running away. But that was merely the ruse, as he let himself get around a corner and out of sight before acting while on the run. "Tail On!" The Tail Gear activated in mid motion, center gear spinning before it engulfed him in a flash of bright light. When it faded away he was shorter, his hair now a vibrant red ending in yellow, while in twintails, and the he was most definitely a she. Tailred was here to fight!

She ran a few more steps before her thrusters activated, blue force kicking her off into the sky as she flew to meet the oncoming horde. At the same time her hands rose to her hair clips, and she readied herself as her Blaze Blade materialized in her hands. "Alright, let's do it," she said to no one in particular as she met them bugs, kicking and slashing, each bug vanquished in quick succession.

At the same time she kept close eye on her surroundings, noting the bugs being taken out from the ground, and she made sure to look out for any civilians in the way. She was not going to let anyone be hurt by these things, not on her watch!

Clementine - Roanapur

When Clementine was about the leave the alley, a recently familiar voice caused her to shrink back inside it once more. Hiding behind a pile of trash that hadn't been turned in to food, she watched DIO and Juri walk by. Juri looked a little worse for the wear, but she was walking unassisted and that was enough to keep Clementine from worrying much. DIO was saying something about the world and time, before pausing and talking saying something about Juri's stand. Clementine had no idea what it meant, but he made it sound important, and then they were out of sight.

Taking a moment more to make sure the coast was clear, Clementine wandered out into the street. Nothing looked dangerous nearby. There were some smaller food animals not too far away, but they weren't acting aggressive, and she didn't see a need to bother them either. She did need supplies though if she were going to spend upwards of a month alone in this city. Her pockets were empty aside from a quarter of an old granola bar, and she only had about a dozen bullets left for her pistol. With the aggressive food animals, now seemed like a good time to scavenge, and from what she had seen of Roanapur, Clementine thought she was in the perfect place to get what she needed too.

She wasn't wrong. It took her less than ten minutes to find corpses, and every single one was armed in some fashion or another. Roanapur didn't seem to have any walkers in it, but Clementine was starting to think it might be even more dangerous than where she came from, even without the strange things that were going on. Within about twenty minutes, she had found a pair of knives, a gun, a backpack, and then two more guns. All three guns were handguns and each was a couple bullets shy of being full. The first was a little larger than Clem felt she could handle, but she kept it just in case. One knife sheathe fit mostly inside her pocket, and Clementine put everything else into the smallest pocket of the backpack.

Another dozen minutes and Clementine smelled something even more valuable. Following her nose, she saw it; a turkey made entirely of jerky. Clem thought for a moment about how much she appreciated this weird food challenge. She didn't really want to kill it, but jerky would keep much better than most of the food available to be gathered. The turkey wasn't quite docile, but with a little patience, Clementine got close enough to get her hands around it, and twisted its neck. After that, she started cutting pieces off of it and loading them in to her backpack. She noticed as she cut that it didn't seem to have any bones, which made her wonder why breaking its neck worked, but she wasn't about to complain.

Almost as an afterthought, Clementine cut off one extra piece and tasted it. Against all sense, the turkey had been made of beef jerky.

Moving on, Clementine found herself uncertain what to do. She was walking aimlessly when everything seemed to happen at once. She started to cross an intersection, and spotted the beast down the street a little ways. It was a rhinoceros made of what looked like thick glass, with a dark purple-red fluid sloshing inside. A different dark red fluid altogether covered its head and parts of its feet. Clementine wasn't sure what was inside it, but she knew what was on the outside even without seeing the bodies scattered around it. She turned and ran back up the street, hoping it hadn't noticed her.

These things never worked out the way you hoped. A few seconds later, the wineoceros crashed around the corner, smashing through a street sign that was still made of metal, first bending and then shearing it off of its base. The glass beast slowed a bit as it made a wide turn, but it was gaining on Clem almost immediately, and was far faster than anything she could outrun. An alleyway up ahead gave her slim hope, and she ran for it as fast as she had ever run for anything. She thought for half an instant about how much she hated this weird food challenge. The sound of glass on pavement was getting closer, fast, and when Clem turned down the alley it was so loud and close that she wasn't sure how it hadn't already trampled her. There was a crashing noise, but it wasn't until she reached the opposite end of the alley that Clementine dared to look. The wall had been graham cracker, and the terrifying animal was pulling itself loose.

Clementine drew her gun, aimed, and fired a shot, but the bullet just bounced off the thick glass. It shook its head, scuffed a foot against the ground, looking ready to charge again. Clementine felt a strong, cool rush of air from behind her, just as she turned to run away again, and found herself facing something that was probably actually worse. Some sort of bug, more than twice Clem's height. It had mandibles as long as her arm and mantis-like claws as big as her entire body, raised up high and ready to strike.

Caught between a rock and a hard place, Clem could hear the thundering of the wineoceros. She dove to the side, hoping she made it out of the way, and crawling another foot and looking back over her shoulder. The bug's blade came down on glass, cutting clean through as the beasts horn pierced through the bug. A spray of wine marked the glass creature's death, but inertia carried it and the mantis monster across the street, and into a wall that was thankfully still made of brick. The bug didn't move again. Clementine took a closer look at it, although not much closer, in case it was still alive. It definitely wasn't made of any kind of food.

What the hell was happening?

Super Skrull - Roanapur

After the report on the battle, the next report Kl'rt had received was that the combatants had vanished. The next thing he heard after that was that the city was besieged by giant insects. It stirred old memories in him, and he wanted to see it for himself. Before going out though, he ordered the entire gang to go to ground. Hide, stay safe, and keep alive. Within minutes, everyone had rushed into the basement of the warehouse except for a few runners that would spread the word.

Kl'rt himself stepped forth from the warehouse doors, shedding his disguise as he did. His visage returned to that of the Emperor of all Skrulls, and his clothing transformed into his imperial battle regalia. Now was not a time for subtlety. He took a certain grim pleasure from what he saw before him. The streets in the warehouse district were no longer a war-zone between man and food. The bugs had joined the fight, and man had lost. This was a war Kl'rt had fought before though. The Super Skrull had slain tens, possibly hundreds of thousands in the war against the Annihilation wave, and with half a dozen allies had destroyed Annihilus' Harvester of Sorrow. The scarce dozen bugs scattered around the street held no fear for the seasoned warrior. They didn't have weapons, and they didn't act as though connected by hive-mind either, at least not yet.

Kl'rt covered his fists with stone, and wreathed them in flames, and without even moving from in front of the warehouse he struck down the bugs, reveling in the feeling of carapaces giving way under his fists once more. When the war had ended, the remained of the Wave had been allowed to sign a peace treaty. Kl'rt had not been given satisfaction; the das't bugs had killed his son, destroyed the entire planet he had been on, and in the treaty had been ceded all Skrull territory, leaving his people without a world to call their own for most of a decade. Kl'rt could kill the bugs all day. It seemed like he'd been given the chance.

With the dozen bugs nearby dead, Kl'rt took to the air, propelled like a rocket by his own flames. High above the city, he looked for areas with high concentrations of the bugs. He would have his satisfaction.

... Eh...?

That droning sounded like a bunch of bugs. Only it was way too loud to be normal-sized insects. Way, way too loud. Kyouko looked up and saw the sky darken with massive amounts of enormous insects. For a few moments, the redheaded girl stared in surprise. Those were some pretty ridiculous odds, but... it was like the weaker demons, going up against any decent magical girl, wasn't it? Hell, what appeared to be another magical girl suddenly seemed to show up out of no-where and start going to town on them, cutting them apart. These things weren't a big deal, especially for someone like her.

Crunching down on one more chip before putting the bag away, Kyouko brought her spear to the ready. Yeah, burn off some steam on these things. "Tch, first a kiddie monster movie reject, now the bad guys outta some kaiju flick?"

The chains rattled as her spear disconnected into separate links and she swung it upwards. The force caused the blade to tear through the wing membrane of one of the monsters approaching the girl who could manipulate her hair, and then shredded through it further as the chain wrapped around its victim. Kyouko grinned, and yanked downwards, hard, slamming the shrieking beast into the ground. Sprinting towards it, she yanked her spear back as it thrashed, struggling to get up and snapping its jaws at her. As if it'd ever manage to get a bite in. Kyouko thrust her spear forward and buried the blade in the monster insect's head, yanking it back out the moment the creature's movements went slack.

"These things are just cannon fodder," she commented with a shrug, flicking her spear as she looked upwards towards the swarm. Still, it was pretty hard to reach them unless they came down low... She'd figure something out.

Having collected all the boba he could find, Wario's attention turned to the swarm. Tying off his Lootin' Bag and slinging it over his shoulder, he recalled the prices of "delicacies" like chocolate-covered grasshoppers with an evil grin, and set off toward the nearest buzzing noise.

Wario, Mahora- The Bento Tree

"iiiiiiiiiii...."

The fat, garlic obsessed plumber from earlier was running through an alleyway, once again knocking anything in his way aside like it was made of paper mache. He slid under the locust, catching its hind legs... and proceeding to lift them off the ground. He planted his feet firmly on the ground, muscles bulging as he began turning in place.

"IIIIIT'S WARIO TIME!"

The turning got faster and faster. The locust scrabbled for purchase on the ground, but could not find it before Wario lifted it up, the creature blurring as he took aim. The spinning got faster and faster as Wario cackled.

"SO LONG, LOSER!"

With gleeful abandon, he let the insect go, watching as it sailed into the cloud with lightning speed. Even from here, the terrified screeching of the advancing insects could be heard. Well, that is until the sickening crunch of a mid-air collision of several bugs that had the misfortune of being near wario's invertebrate missile. Off in the distance, a cloud of green goo- insect guts and shells powdered at high speed- expanded out as several of the swarm's members fell out. Of course, what's ten or fifteen locusts amidst a swarm?

This worrying fact didn't stop Wario from flexing for those present.

"Yeah, Wario's great. You know it."

@GameGuruGG@Dblade26@GameGuruGG

Construction of his throne was going as planed, the Overlord was standing from a distance, continuing to oversee the project and his mindless slaves. Although, while it was true that his throne was made of food, the Overlord was fine with what he could get at the moment since everything around him was made up of some kind of edible item. Though he was still feeling good, people slaving under his name once again while he looks upon them with his unbearable glare, however, there was still something that the Overlord couldn't shake away, something that was missing under his rule... His minions. The Overlord couldn't help it, those tiny freaks were the very tool that all Overlords before him had used to conquer the lands, they were the main source of his power! Though, he would never admit such a self-degrading statement. So, the Overlord continued to stand menacingly over his slaves, waiting for something to happen.

The boredom didn't last too long as something was crawling out of the shadows. Oh? A new monster to tame? The Overlord walked closer to the snarling creature, this thing was quite dangerous looking... Just his type. He glanced over towards his Gummi Bear, it was licking the blood off of its gelatinous material, but it soon looked directly into the eyes of the Overlord, ready to take a command. The leader soon pointed towards the slaves, they were defenseless and he didn't want anyone to try to steal away his slaves. The bear nodded, seeming to understand the action before moving its way over towards the throne, snarling at the slaves to go faster. The Overlord looked back to the situation at hand, the mystery beast in the shadows. He raised his hand towards the misshaped monster, flames sparking out of his palm before a steady ball of fire was lighting the darkness surrounding the food monster, however, it wasn't made of food.

It let out a rather terrifying roar before leaping out of the shadows, and towards the Overlord. Lightly startled, he took one step back before he realized what was inside of his hand. A spew of flames shot out of his palm, the fire enveloping the entire man-sized creature. It almost instantly burned to a crisp, the entire shell shriveling with an almost charcoal black coating! The corpse slammed into the ground, grinding the putrid flesh into the road before reaching only inches away from the Overlord. He glared at the monster before stomping onto the burnt insect, guts splattering across the place including his armor... Not the best idea. He looked over to his Gummi Bear, it was biting into the head of yet another human-sized insect, the creature crying in pain as the fangs dug deeper into the brain. The slaves continued to work on the throne, unaware of the monsters surrounding the entire area, what a pain. The Overlord snapped his fingers together, the slaves instantly flocked behind the Overlord, including the Gummi Bear covered inside of the blood of the new monsters. It seemed like there was something to do in this damn place, something that involved violence. The Overlord raised his mace over his shoulder, flames barfing into the air, and he started to move down the street, creepy crawlies landing onto the ground in front of them. It was a good thing this place was a rather undesirable area, even in the nice part, everyone had a weapon. The Supereme Commander pointed towards the bugs ahead of them, everyone of his slaves pulling out various weapons from chains to pistols, his Gummi Bear roared, and the Overlord's hand sparked in fire once again. It was time to fight.



Krieg literally didn't even notice the sword being pointed straight into his face, the Voice did, but not him... He was too busy eating. If Sakura hadn't pulled back her sword, he might have bitten into the sharp piece of metal, and it wasn't the first time that Krieg had devoured a sharp piece of metal, ask Zer0, he is still trying to find his back-up sword. However, the Voice was startled at the sudden weapon sticking into the Tacodile, he knew that girl was rather angry towards Krieg, but threatening them with violence over food? That is just crazy... Well, not really, he watched two bandits try to eat each other in a contest once... It was horrifying. Though, Krieg continued to shovel food into his face, I mean literally his face as most of it was missing his mouth, but still enough was getting into the stomach for something bad to happen to his digestive system later. So, the Voice continued to passively watch from the perspective of the Psycho, even being impressed by how much he was eating! Although, the ever perceptive Voice in his head started to hear something else in the distance... Buzzing? Are their insects inside of here? He started to look around, a bug would be crushed under all of his food, but where else could if come from? The outside? No insect could be that big... Oh yeah, this creature made of Tacos is pretty big... Maybe he should check it out. The Voice patted Krieg's mind, "Hey, something to kill might be out there." The Psycho stopped eating.

Smack. Smack. Smack. SMASH! Krieg's head popped from the shell of the fallen beast, he was covered in a variety of juices and scattered bits of food, though that didn't matter at the moment. A swarm of ugly monsters were swarming towards their direction, insects... They were almost a combination between a Spider-Ant and Adult Varkid, ugly little creatures. Another thumping noise was heard once again, and his arms burst out of the shell as well, two holes right below his head hole. "Ugh, fine! I'll make the sky bleed!" Carnage soon digistructed into his hands, Krieg's hands gripping tightly onto the trigger. "Gun time, fun time!" The Psycho pulled the trigger, tiny little rockets blasted out of the barrel towards the swarm! And as always, his projectiles were true to their course, straight into the core of the swarm!

KABOOM

Bits and pieces of insects started to fall down towards the ground, the body count could not be counted due to the problem that you couldn't tell which part was different from another, however, he killed them! Though, not a lot. The rockets explosions only managed to take down the ones closest to the explosions, but the ones near it had only gotten damaged in the process, not blown into tiny meat chunks. But, there is some good in that news. The horrifying looking insects that had been damaged were descending towards the group of adventurers! Wait, was that a good thing? Wait, The Voice was pretty sure there a person inside that swarm of bugs... The Voice looked at the cloud of smoke... Nah, he didn't see anyone... Right? Krieg only laughed as a clip digistructed into his hands and slammed in another magazine into the magnificent weapon, a smile of pleasure on his face.

After hearing about what her hair really was Ed didn't need to ask her about it anymore right now. Then a voice came on and told them about how the day was gong to go and Ed didn't like it. A lot of civilians were going to die for some things entertainment. He dropped his candy sword and put his hands together. He then placed his left hand up his right sleeve to touch his metal arm and formed part of the metal into a blade that ripped off his glove reviling his auto mail arm. Ed ran to some near by civilians who were running away from the swarm and faced the large bugs. Some targeted Ed while some continued to go after the people. Ed put his hands together and place his left hand on the ground causing spikes to rise and pierce the bugs still after the civilians. Ed got knocked backed from a giant mutated fly looking thing but moved out of the way for it's follow up attack. He was sure the others would be fine by noise of combat he heard and he hoped the boy who ran off found a safe place to hide so he focused on the bugs attacking him.

Hmmmm... everyone seemed to be introducing their skills as well. It made Twilight wonder if she should do the same......... It, really wasn't something she liked to do, It tended to make her feel like she was rudely bragging or something...... Perhaps she spent too long thinking about it, long enough to be suddenly interrupted by the offer of a cookie that completely derailed her thought train as she stopped to stare at it... "Ooh! I'd love one!" She quite happily floated one of the offered cookies her way in that sparkly lavender aura to pull it over to start adorkably nibbling on it... she got about half way through the cookie then paused, swallowed, and smiled broadly "Hrm, sorry. It's a pleasure to meet you all, Er, Jax, Chun-li, Kino, Hermes, Tachibana, and Ranma? those are fascinating names, and this is a tasty cookie... It reminds me of home, there's always somepony cooking something sweet, heehee."

She'd been imagining such blissful delights from home that were inspired by the cookie, that she wasn't even paying enough attention to her surroundings to see someone in broad day-light gliding over them in an out-fit that vastly contrasted the colors of the sky... Of course, she 'did' hear the sudden rustling of someone dropping into the tree, possibly loosing a few of the 'fruits' of said tree, The looked up before jumping back with a quiet girlish yelp... she spent a bare moment listening to this new comer before thinking to herself 'this one's more paranoid than 'me'... At least I didn't throw accusations as a form of greeting.'

She was tempted to have something to say about his behavior, but any of those thoughts were interrupted by the sudden appearance of the... Giant. insect. monsters?

Even with half a cookie still in her muzzle she stared wide-eyed at the distant swarm that seemed to be quickly spreading out across the city, ears folded back, with her wings and tail twitching anxiously. "I suppose... I expected something like this to be possible, but It seems ridiculous to actually see it... A little overwhelming... Last time I fought an army of bugs they were a little smaller than me." Suddenly a memory of Pinkie pie somehow picking her up and using her like a magic powered minigun sent both a shiver and giggle through her, funny as it was, it was unnerving to remember that she 'still' had no idea how that had been possible!

Perhaps more importantly though, she suddenly stared in horror as the creatures were countered by some... strange devices firing many beams of some kind at them, leaving countless holes in the creatures... killing them in droves it seemed... Killing... It was something she'd literally never done, every problem she'd been faced with in the past had a solution other than killing, it was such a drastically far removed concept for her that she froze there, trying to rationalize what was before...

She knew that this and many other obstacles were standing between her and getting home... between her and 'survival' even... These people had experienced things like 'this' so much that they actually had dedicated defenses for these monsters, weapons and shields to strike back at them... This was a COMMON thing here! Perhaps it was here that it really clicked for her 'I might die here if I don't fight... but... I can't...' She just wasn't someone who could dive straight into killing things, fighting, yes, but not killing... maybe if she were in a moment of desperation, but she didn't want to even think about it.

So instead she waited, watching what the others would be doing first... then another thing clicked that she heard "... purge?" 'something' changed, there was a twitch... then another... This 'viewer' is responsible for this too... like everything else here, he is behind it, he's making this happen... He's sending in legions of monsters to 'kill' people who are already his victims. This was truly an enemy of kind she had not faced before. Magic eating tyrants, Jealous Royalty, Mad kings obsessed with slavery, emotivorous shape shifters, she'd even had a go with someone else who twisted reality with a snap of his claws...

None of them quite compared to someone who had 'this' kind of power, tampered with the lives of others for personal amusement, and then sets monsters upon his trapped victims like some sick foal with a magnifying glass... It was taking every ounce of control not to properly 'snap' as she started to fathom just how twisted this situation really was, one might even be able to see a bit of steam seep out of her fur, and the suddenly present snarl that accompanied this as she began to mumble quietly to herself "I can't possibly accept just finding somewhere safe to wait this out... I 'have' to help those people... but I might have to... to... Gah!" the very concept was disturbing her considerably, she just couldn't settle it in her head that she'd need to kill.

She wasn't completely oblivious though, she was still paying attention to her would be comrades, and what she was hearing was much more inspiring than her own inner conflict was, for certain... They were all ready to leap into the fray, whether that was for love of a fight, a drive to protect the victims, or a disturbing lust for murder, she didn't really know... What she 'did' know though, was that is infinitely more effective than her, sitting there confusing herself and wasting time being afraid to kill anything, rather than trying to find other ways to help that still suited her!

Regardless of their reasons, they were doing something and she was just whining at herself... This had to change immediately!

'Alright... a fight, people to protect, monsters to beat up...Sounds like Rainbow's thing, what would 'she' do... Probably saying something like 'stop being a wuss and to hit them a lot' but with much more inspiring phrasing... It'd work though, so 'what' can I hit them with? They're way too big for the book spell, they'd just end up swallowing me whole, probably can't paralyze them, last time I tried transmogrification on hungry bug things they started eating the 'houses' instead. I... don't think I can kill them... well, I 'could', but I don't think I can make myself do it, but maybe i can help the others with it... That it!'

Something she most certainly 'could' do was draw their attention to lessen the threat on other people, as well as occasional shielding.... She didn't know enough about any of them to attempt 'directing' them, and they surely didn't know 'her' well enough to trust her judgement on it, so for now she'd settle for supporting their own actions.

A few moments of planning and watching the other's pouring into the fray and she had her plan of action!

She quickly trotted a few paces away from the tree, and anyone who was still near it, before she planted her hooves and a bright lavender glow poured over her horn, filtering into a swirling mass of differing shades of the same color range... She felt some memories flash back to when she'd first used the spell, Something she was actually ashamed of, when she'd first struck out at another in rage... The only other times she had practiced the spells she had used that day were for the sole purpose of ensuring she could control it and never let that kind of force slip free by accident. It had been an undeniable example of just how destructive she could be if she focused herself on it, and it truly terrified her to imagine what could have happened if she had just aimed that beam in the wrong direction.

This would be different though, She watched the swarming creatures writhing about in the sky, there were so many that 'not' hitting one would be a challenge in itself... It took several seconds to spot a prime opening, unleash her beam in a deliberate miss. The bright colorful beam of various purples was accompanied by a strange inexplicable droning sound unique to such attacks, and yet, she found herself ironically pleased that it had taken longer to prepare than she remembered, along with a decidedly less excessive amount of launching into the sky and zipping through a lucky opening in the swarm before exploding in a brilliant display of lights in the sky on the other side of it... she might not be able to push herself to kill so suddenly, but she could damn sure draw their attention upon herself!

The moment she saw several of the flying beasts redirecting towards a new 'threat' she crouched a bit, throwing her wings and re-igniting the glow upon her horn, similarly passing over her wings for another moment before she snapped them down, launching herself into the sky with a gust of wing that scattered some of the grass and rocks around where she took off, barreling towards insect-like creatures that 'may' have frightened her if she were a few years earlier in her life... As it was now, she wanted 'them' to fear 'her', the whole plan was to make a spectacle of herself and distract the monsters so that they would be easier targets for people more prepared for this violence, and to draw their attention 'away' from those who couldn't fight them at all.

She glared down a pair of the disturbing flying worm like monsters that had managed to get past the barrier without being blasted down, watching closely as they seemed to blindly bump against eachother while trying to line up to catch their flying meal... She loosed a quick concussive shot between them, far too weak to really harm, but enough to make them part ways a bit further this time, just enough that she could zip between them without getting crushed, before suddenly bursting into flames, earning the shrill screeches of the ones that she was currently passing by as they were licked by the initial flames.

Beyond this, she arched down away from the pair before those wily tails could come anywhere near striking her and soared off in broad arc, looking every bit a sparkly fire-ball that would occasionally flash purple when she'd teleport to avoid and confuse some pursuer... She recalled someone mentioning 'team-work' as they charged off to joint he fray, and she rather hopped that the other's would take advantage of whatever monster's actually got distracted by her, to take out easy targets everytime she led them back around or into the line of fire of those defensive weapons... Also, because if they didn't, she'd probably be in some deep horseapples, considering most of them could probably swallow her whole and put out her little 'light show' easily enough, a fairly likely result once she inevitably tired out from this.

@Grey Star@LuciansMentor@GameGuruGG@Raineh Daze@Dblade26and whoever else feels like noticing XD

---

The dead end alleyway near the massive turntable on Yazoo Street's end was a usually quiet and very tame place at night. Most cats, dogs, rats, spiders and other unseen creatures of the day would gather in the dimly lit corridor usually to find solace from their harsh days on the streets. However, tonight was a different. As the sun sets the street lamps on Yazoo Street lit up with a strong amber light that seemed to shine faintly of the freshly paved asphalt. The rails for the various trolleys and trains returned the mercury lamp's boisterous greeting by emitting an eerie glow. Returning to the alleyway all the quiet residents of the night simultaneously gathered into one spot and proceeded in their own language to talk about the days trifling events. Usually everyone would have a unique and equally terrifying story to share, all of them except one: a lonely orphaned kitty who spent most of her time napping in the shade during the day and finding scraps of food by night. All of the other animals rejected her and detested her for being lazy unlike every other animal who worked their hardest during the day. She longed for an end to this trivial lifestyle of hers, she desired to be happy. Unbeknownst to her however, something in the regular cycle was about to change.

Suddenly in the middle of the gathering where they were listening to a pit bull talking about it's day a portal appeared on the ground, the pitbull jumped off and ran back to its cohorts in horror. The portal was a dominant shade of yellow from the outside, it's faint light giving off a calming yet terrifying radiance. Then came the moans, they were quiet at first but they began to crescendo in both noise and pitch. One brave mouse slowly crept up to the portal looking into it with it's tiny- beady eyes. It panicked at the sight that was present to it, souls of the damned; at least thousands were moaning and turning in the portal in seemingly endless agony. The mouse darted back to the safety of his friends when the portal made a shriek, the kitty who had been bored this entire time looked up to see a portal in the middle of the ground- something was up. Slowly a figure rose up from the gaping hole in the earth, images of the damned caressing the figure as its long hair flowed in the wind. Slowly the figure faded more into view, it was a man who had long green hair. He was wearing all sorts of jewelry, a ceremonial vest and leather boots along with silk pants. At his side there was a beatiful horn engraved with jewels beyond those of socialite's wildest dreams. Finally, the man stepped out of the portal- the souls leaving him as they moaned back into the portal: closing it. The onlookers of animals who had witnessed this spectacle were now as equally intrigued as they were horrified. The man's eyes opened, his eyes an intense shade of crimson.

Forneus surveyed the area around him, the trip here had been no easy task especially since Aunas had such a heatstroke. How annoying to him that it had taken so much longer than anticipated and even seconded by Arakes! But alas, that did not trifle him now. What did trifle him was the great ammount of animals that stood in front of him, blocking the entryway to what he assumed was the main street. Feeble minded creatures, always onlooking with an amount of uncertainty. This is why aquatic life is far superior, if a Dolphin sees a Shark it will swim away as fast as possible; not give it an idiotic look! Forneus smiled, he didn't like arrogance- but if he himself deemed anyone so below his level that not even God himself would smile upon them: it meant that it was alright. He did not care for the upper land that much, Arakes did, Byunei did but not him, he knew that life above water had not fully evolved yet. The sea was dangerous, intelligent, mysterious and of course brimming with knowledge that not even the finest scholar could ever fathom. However the sea was not his domain, the Abyss was. The Abyss was even more admirable than every sea on every planet, it held so much that it would trounce them all at any moment! Forneus smiled, he saw a pit bull and two other dogs get defensive and rather apprehensive of the lord; much like a cornered rat.

Sporting a grin so vile you'd ponder if it was actually glassgow he walked towards the group of hapless animals. Oh what is this? Some sort of circus? The dog to the right of the pit bull reacted immediately jumping towards Forneus with its mouth gaping open. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Bad dogs always get the leash. The dog came in within a foot of Forneus before a spear of water shot up from the ground, it met the dog's head as soon as it had come within breathing distance. It easily pierced the neck and proceeded to tear through the skull until the top of the spear came out the other end with a loud CRACK! The dog was dead, eyes still in attack mode. The rest of the animals ran for their lives before they would also be made an example of, except for the kitty who had caught Forneus' attention. The small kitten made a nervous meow as Forneus closed in on her, eyes glowing red. He stopped right in front of her and picked her up with one hand, the poor thing was too frightened to try and struggle.

"And just what do we have here?" The lord cooed as he looked the kitten straight in the eyes, "You know, I'm quite impressed with those who don't run away from my performances." The helpless animal only stared back and purred as if in agreement.

Forneus snickered, "You have my respect feline! You should be proud of standing your ground against the very essence of abyssal waters! Not much do! He brought the kitten closer, for some reason- she no longer felt fear. "You put up with these imbeciles every day don't you!? You simply sit back while they mock you and pretend that nothing is happening- don't you!?"

Forneus' words were like daggers to the lonely kitten's heart, he spoke the truth. "Allow me to tell you something." The lord stated, "I despise cowardice." With that sentence Forneus snapped his finger, in the next few seconds that followed- cries of despair and pain filled the brisk air. The kitten's fear returned, she knew she was the only one left.

"But fear not! For you are on a higher plane of thinking than those idiots. I will let you go for now, you may choose to accompany me if you so desire to maintain that higher plain of thinking." Forneus pet the kitty gently and put her down, with that the lord strolled down the alleyway and out to the main street.

As he proceeded out into the dusk he heard what sounded like buzzing. He turned around to see three giant beetle-like insects flying towards him. They all looked the same, the had a sleek green carapace, six bulging blue eyes and a long nose-like tube used for possibly devouring their meal. Forneus cackled as the beasts approached him from above, he thought to himself as to what to do when the situation began to unfold.

Mmm. The one in the middle is a bit hungry looking, he'll impulsively try to stab me with that giant nose of his. The Whirlpool of the Abyss stepped to one side as a giant green nose stabbed into the chocolate pavement. Forneus unstrapped a hidden cloth underneath his cloack and took out his favorite short-sword: Venus. Without another word he sliced quickly, removing the creature's nose- purple liquid gushing out of the half that was erased forcefully. The creature bore its head down again, only for three spears of water to stab into it's round face- piercing its brain and killing it instantly. Forneus done with this deed smiled and then thought to himself again, The second one will obviously try to employ some teamwork with the third one and attack me from behind... Let's see them try this!

The two other insects flew to both sides of the lord and proceeded to charge him. Forneus smiled and with his hand drew a circular motion in the air, after 2 seconds a giant bubble appeared around him. The insects increased their pace, hungry for this new victim who had been stupid enough to walk out upon an open street. At the same time they both hit the bubble, causing Forneus' hair to rustle. He opened his eyes and said plainly, "You can continue your feeding in the bottom of the Abyss, heathens." The bubble exploded and the immense pressure of the bubble caused the two insect's bodies to rupture, both of them exploding in a purple mess as their remains fell to the ground. Forneus remained where he had stood and smiled, no goop was around him and he was sure the cat from earlier had watched him. He was right and she wanted more.